The present invention is embodied in a system and method for containing and removing contaminated dental waste from a dental services facility. In particular, a preferred embodiment of the invention enables the capture of mercury contaminated dental waste.
Mercury is a highly toxic, persistent, and bio-accumulative pollutant. Once released, mercury can remain in the environment for years with the potential to disperse over a wide area posing a significant risk to human health, wildlife and the environment. Health effects of mercury are particularly severe to fetuses and younger children.
Dental service facilities are among the largest users of mercury in the United States. Dental practices use mercury in the filling of cavities and repairing of fillings in procedures referred to as amalgam restorations. Amalgam is used to fill cavities in teeth and is composed of powdered mercury, silver, and tin, and may contain other elements. During procedures with or on fillings, the powdered mercury gets into the dental waste lines of the dental facility by being suctioned or rinsed out of a patient's mouth with a saliva ejector that is used in connection with dental evacuation devices, the mercury being in a state of suspension in the water/saliva mixture.
Typically, such dental waste produced at dental service facilities is released into the sewer lines that deliver waste water to waste water treatment facilities. The average dentist office produces over two pounds of waste a year, with the mercury produced by dental practices contributing to the significant mercury levels in municipal wastewater treatment plants, which are not designed to treat or reduce mercury contaminated waste water.
Accordingly, there is a need for a safe, effective, and cost efficient method of preventing dental waste containing mercury that is produced at a dental services facility from being released into the environment.